In his recent address to a joint session of Congress, President Donald Trump reiterated his desire to build an air and missile defense system for the entire United States. Invoking Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative or “Star Wars” vision of 1983, Trump said that we now have the technology to do what Reagan intended but was unable to achieve. There is at least partial evidence to support Trump’s goal: Ukraine has intercepted large fractions of the cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and drones that Russia has unrelentingly bombarded its cities with since 2022, and Israel’s Iron Dome aided by American defense systems largely neutralized huge Iranian attacks against Israel in both April and October of 2024. Remarkably, even though some 500 objects of various types were shot at Israel, and the attacks were generally expected (allowing greater vigilance by defenses), casualties and damage were minimal.
An Iron Dome for America? (Michael O’Hanlon, Brookings)
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